I am having a serious senior moment and could use some help. I just know that I read, just a little while ago, a discussion about sending packages to military personnel overseas. I went to the website shown, found the things that they recommend, wanted to go beck to the site to see if there is a link for names to send to, and I can not find it again. Someone HELP!

Yep, that's what I thought. I was shocked. One lady said that she could only find one seat and all the pollworkers were eating and talking and she couldn't concentrate. It was pointed out to her that all she had to do was ask everyone to be quiet. Who would feel comfortable doing that? Not me, for sure.

Every time I go to vote, the women who are working the sign in table and ballot box area drive me nuts because they will not shut up. They talk constantly and cackle like a bunch of old hens. I literally had to plug my ears so I could concentrate on reading my ballots.

Indian summer can occur any time AFTER the first frost of the season. There has to be a frost though.

Up here we can actually have a frost in late September and then it may warm up into the 70s in October. That happened this year....we had a frost at the end of September, then about 2 weeks later we had our first Indian summer.

On Halloween it was in the 60s, so that was a big treat for us! The lil' ballerinas weren't wearing their tutus underneath their winter coats! Usually it is raw, cold, rainy, yucky or a combination of all of the above!

It has been rather mild lately and, as I sit here, I have one of the windows opened up here in my computer room.....and it's 7 pm here! It is supposed to start raining later on tonight and will rain all day tomorrow. My neighbor across the street took advantage of today's warm weather to put up all of his outdoor Christmas decorations......and right now they are all lit up!

We've had about 4 frosts so far and then a week of warm weather, so I guess that counts as Indian Summer.
2 weeks ago it wa 29. Yesterday we ALMOST turned the ac on in the house as it got close to 80 in the afternoon.

I also visit a board in a very small town sort of near me. Someone asked the other day if the following is a violation, and got beaten to the ground for asking.

Is it legal to have everyone sitting around tables, voting and conversing at the same time?

The pole captain was incensed that anyone would question that procedure and stated that "that's the way we've ALWAYS done it".

Are any of you familiar with this practice and do they do it at your polling place? I've voted in several places and worked at the polls for years and I have never seen it done.

Where I vote, there is an overflow area that is just 2 or 3 tables. We have about 8 voting booths and if they are full you are given the option to go to the overflow area or to wait for a booth. They can't make you go to the overlow area.

I'm assuming it's legal in MI as we did have some poll watchers there and I would believe they would complain up a storm if it wasn't "ok".

But what I have a problem with is a bunch of people sitting around discussing who to vote for, with their paper ballots in hand, and then voting. I just don't consider anything that important as being a community project. What if a woman wants to vote a certain way but her husband has his eagle eye on her? Or it could be the other way around, but either way, I wouldn't like it. Several people said that they don't vote there any more because they didn't feel comfortable with the arrangement. We told them that now is the time to bring it to everyones attention and perhaps instigate a change before next election.

Hey you guys, you'd be so proud of me. I made my first homemade chicken soup! (I've made homemade tomato soup before so I'm not a total idiot...but homemade chicken soup is delish!) I found this whole roaster (organic no less) on sale for $3.25 (!!!) (and it was fresh--not anywhere near the expiration date!) so I made roast chicken and potatoes the other night. Usually I throw all the bones out but this time I made chicken stock to freeze to use in recipes later; and then with some of it, I added some veggies and made soup. It's sooooooooo good and hearty, esp. with a little rice thrown in or with some nice French bread on the side. Perfect for this nippy weather! I know, I know, you all probably have been doing this for years, but for me, it's a big to-do! I'm already looking forward to making turkey soup this year after Thanksgiving.

(I didn't put this in the recipes thread 'cause this isn't a recipe...it's more of a koffee klatch/praise me type of post! Shameless, aren't I?! )

Wow! You have arrived! Home made chicken soup is one of the best things in the world. Sometimes I use noodles, sometimes I use wild rice but it's all good. I never buy chickens just bags of boneless, skinless breasts. Therefore, I have to add a little boullion to get the rich taste. That and loads of garlic usually do the trick.

LL, do you eat cabbage? If so, I'll pm you an easy soup recipe that you might like.